1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the managing of printing tasks in multiple image forming apparatuses connected to a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printing system in which multiple image forming apparatuses are connected over a network is known. These multiple image forming apparatuses comprise printers, copying machines or the like. Such a printing system usually is used in an environment in which there is a relatively large number of users and therefore a large amount of printing (i.e., a large organization such as a company). In such a case, one image forming apparatus is often used by more than one organization, or multiple image forming apparatuses may be used in an environment in which multiple organizations coexist in the same LAN. Such a printing system often uses group management in order to keep track of the number of pages printed for each group or organization. In group management, the name of the group is registered in each image forming apparatus, and the number of pages printed for each group or further for each user is counted and recorded. In other words, printing is permitted only for users of registered groups, and the number of pages printed by any such user is recorded. The number of pages printed is counted per apparatus for each group, and the total number of pages printed for each group is recorded by the administrator.
In addition, such a printing system has a substitute printing function by which, when a failure occurred in the original printing apparatus, remaining print data is transferred to another image forming apparatus such that the remaining data may be printed out, as well as a printing task distributing function by which the print data is distributed to multiple image forming apparatuses for printing in order to reduce the printing time.
However, the following problems occur when these functions are used. For example, let us assume a situation in which Group A is registered with an image forming apparatus 1 and no groups are registered with other image forming apparatuses 2 and 3. An example of such a situation would be a situation in which new copying machines have been introduced but no groups have been registered. In this case, if a user of Group A requests via the image forming apparatus 1 that substitute printing be performed by the image forming apparatus 2 or 3 and printing is completed by either apparatus, the number of pages printed for Group A is not counted by the substitute apparatus, resulting in an inaccurate record of the number of pages printed for Group A.